SAP HANA Information Composer – for the Non-Technical User?

[TammyPowlas]

SAP HANA Information Composer is positioned as a tool for the Non-Technical user.  Using Information Composer, the user should not have to go to IT to get their SAP HANA modeling done.  With the help and encouragement of Juergen Schmerder, I thought I would give it a try.

In this scenario, I am a "business analyst" combining two SAP HANA Analytic views: one view has NYSE data and the other view has AMEX data (courtesy of Ronald Konijnenburg).  Then I can use SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Edition for Office to analyze the data (or BusinessObjects Explorer) further.

The first step is to log in using this URL on your SAP Hana system.

http://localhost:8080/IC/

 

Figure 1, logging on

Logon with your SAP Hana User name and password as shown in Figure  Figure 2, Compose

 

Figure 2 Compose

Compose is on the left side at the top as shown in Figure 2.  Click Start + icon to get started with the Information Composer.

 

Figure 3, Specify Source of Data

Figure 3 shows you select your first source of data.  I am going to select the Analysis Analytic view, which contains NYSE data, courtesy of r.konijnenburg/blog

 

Figure 4 – a view of the ANALYSIS Analytic View with NYSE data

After showing Figure 4, click Next to select the next source of data.

 

Figure 5  AMEX Analytic View

Figure 5 shows AMEX Analytic view.  Click the Next button to combine.

 

Figure 6 Combine

Figure 6 shows the "combine" or union was successful.  As an end user, I did not need to tell SAP Hana what the joins were, which is nice.

 

Figure 7 Manage Fields

Figure 7 shows how I can select fields to be included in the Information View (like SAP Hana Calculation View) for reporting.

 

Figure 8 Finish

Figure 8 shows the Finish line.  Now I can share this Information View with others and publish it.

 

Figure 9 BusinessObjects Analysis Office

I start SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Office, log on to SAP Hana, and select the Information View I just created as shown in Figure 9.

 

Figure 10 - Analysis Office, view of Combined AMEX/NYSE data

Figure 10 shows the combined AMEX/NYSE data, and now as a business analyst I can start analyzing the data.

Key Takeaways:

1) Was Information Composer easy to use?  Yes, this only took a few minutes

2) This was easier than creating a union in SAP Hana's using a Calculated View

3) The business analyst still needs to know the data. Notice how I did not even look at the joins of the combined table; that could be a risk if you do not know the data.

I could see this used in other scenarios where a business analyst may want to upload data from Excel to enrich the SAP Hana calculated view.  However, if the data is disparate, you will still need a SAP Hana expert modeler to design this a calculated view.